Who lives at an address, and who owns it? Title registers, the electoral register and why ownership is not occupation

Different questions, different records

What a title register shows

Most land and property in England and Wales is registered with HM Land Registry, and anyone can download a copy of the title register for a small fee shown on GOV.UK. It shows:

• the title number and a description of the property;
• the name of each registered owner, known as the proprietor;
• the price paid, where it is available;
• one or more addresses for service, where the owner can be written to;
• mortgages and other charges, with the lender's name;
• restrictions, rights of way and other entries affecting the property.

An owner can give up to three addresses for service, at least one of them a postal address, and the others can include an email address. The address for service is often the property itself, but it may be a solicitor's office, a home elsewhere or an address abroad, and it is only as current as the owner has kept it. Land that has not changed hands for many years may still be unregistered and will not appear at all. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own registers, and like HM Land Registry they are searched by property, not by the name of a person.

Why the owner may not live there

• Rented homes. A landlord owns the property and tenants live in it, which is the position for millions of homes.
• Company ownership. The owner is a company, and the people living there may be its directors, its employees or tenants. Overseas entities that own land in the UK must register their beneficial owners on the Register of Overseas Entities at Companies House.
• Owners who have moved. People keep a former home and let it, or leave it empty, when they move in with a partner, take a job elsewhere or go abroad.
• Care and hospital. An older owner may be living in a care home while the house stands empty or is occupied by family.
• Joint owners who have separated. Both stay on the title, but one has left.
• Estates. After a death the title may still show the person who died until the estate is dealt with.
• Family homes in someone else's name. Adult children, parents and partners live in homes registered to another member of the family.

Who lives there: what the public records can tell you

No public record lists everyone living at an address. The electoral register comes closest: you can buy the open version, which leaves out everyone who has opted out, or inspect the full version under supervision at the council, taking handwritten notes only. It shows people registered to vote there, which leaves out children, people not eligible to vote, recent arrivals who have not registered and anyone registered anonymously, and it can still list people who have left. Can you find someone's address on the electoral register? covers it in detail.

Council tax records show who is liable for a property, but they are not public, and neither are utility accounts. The honest answer to "who lives here?" is that the public records give a partial and dated picture, and no lawful source will give you a complete one.

Ownership is not an address for the owner

Treating a title register as if it said where someone lives causes real problems:

• A letter of claim sent to the owner at a rented property is opened by the tenant.
• A claim form served at a property the defendant owns but does not live in may not have been served at their residence at all, and a judgment obtained that way risks being set aside.
• An enforcement agent sent to a property where the debtor is only the owner meets a tenant whose belongings are not the debtor's.

The title register answers the ownership question well. For the residence question, use it as a lead, not as the answer.

When ownership matters

Ownership is still worth knowing. A debtor who owns property is worth suing, because a judgment can be secured against it with a charging order. A guarantor who still owns the home they gave on the guarantee is likely to receive a letter sent there, even if they now live elsewhere. For an executor, a property in a beneficiary's name is a sign of where they were settled when it was bought. In each case the useful combination is where the person lives and whether they own it, and the two answers come from different places: the title register for ownership, a trace for residence.

What a trace answers, and the ownership check

Trace Bureau starts from a named person, not from an address. It cross-references more than 150 sources, registers and records, a private investigator checks and verifies the result, and you receive a dated PDF report with the person's current registered UK address and a confidence rating: Confirmed, Probable or Possible. "Registered" means the address the records currently place the person at, which in the great majority of cases is where they live.

Where it helps, add a property ownership check on the address found, from HM Land Registry, at £30, charged only if delivered. It tells you who owns the address where the person lives, so you know whether they are the owner or not. Standard is £150, delivered within 3 to 5 working days; Priority is £200, delivered within 2 to 3 working days. There is nothing to pay when you instruct. Your card is only saved, and it is charged only when a private investigator has verified a current address. Not found, no fee.

A trace always needs a named person: the minimum is the full legal name plus a date of birth or a previous address, and a lawful reason. An address on its own, with a request to know who lives there, is not something a trace can start from.

When you need more than records

Sometimes the question really is who occupies a property: a dispute over occupation, a suspected unlawful sublet, an insurance claim. That is an enquiry on the ground rather than a records search. Our sister service, Investigation Bureau (investigationbureau.uk), handles wider enquiries of that kind, along with process serving, asset tracing and due diligence. Trace Bureau only finds addresses.

When to instruct a professional trace

Instruct when the question behind an ownership search is really where a particular person lives: a debtor, a former tenant, a guarantor, a beneficiary or a party to proceedings. Instruct a trace online, and tick the ownership check if you also want to know who owns the address found.